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Lord of the Ring Deck and Book Set |
Zen and Tarotenlightenment and meditationA deck and book set, based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, that unites tarot archetypes with the fantastic realm of Middle-earth. Rules included for a card game in which players journey to Middle-earth to destroy the One Ring. One objective of tarot history is to trace the many changes the cards have undergone through the centuries, as they were taken to different locales and redesigned by different artists and cardmakers. Many variant designs are beautiful, intriguing, or provocative, giving us a window on the popular culture of different times and places. A second objective is to find clues pertaining to the recalcitrant mystery of the origin of the tarot cards: What was on the mind of the original designer? Did the symbolic pictures have a deeper meaning and purpose, or were they merely game pieces? The question is surprisingly difficult to answer. We can gather some evidence from the art, literature, and popular culture of the time. We can also look at the cards themselves, and the occasional written references to them that have survived. From such evidence, it is possible to build up a picture of what the tarot symbols might have meant when the cards were first created. Different people, though, come up with very different pictures! The evidence is ambiguous.
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